The present invention relates generally to listing search results and particularly to displaying the search results in an optimized manner.
Computer networking systems such as the Internet are exploding in popularity all over the world. There are many reasons for this phenomenal growth, not the least of which is the ability to discover and access needed information in an efficient manner. The power of the Internet enables the average person with very little technical training to search for information in minutes instead of days, weeks, or even months of searching libraries, telephone books, directories or other conventional research means. To better understand conventional Internet search technology, refer now to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 represents a flowchart of how an Internet user performs a conventional web search.
First, the Internet user accesses a web search engine, via step 10. Next, the Internet user enters a search term(s) into the web search engine, via step 12. The web search engine then identifies the web pages that contain the search term(s), via step 14. Finally, the web pages containing the search term(s) are listed by the search engine, via step 16.
However, as more and more information comes online, at accelerating rates, today""s search engine interfaces and features are not keeping pace. Searches that would have previously produced less than a dozen relevant documents are now producing hundreds of documents. This is making it very difficult and time consuming for the Internet user to evaluate and investigate the results. More sophisticated searches, sometimes beyond the grasp of a non-professional researcher, are not always the answer as the narrower searches introduce greater risk of eliminating relevant and useful information. The severity of this problem is growing day by day at an ever-increasing rate.
One of the circumstances greatly exacerbating this problem is the tendency of web page developers to add large numbers of keywords to each and every page of their web site as a strategy to boost their standings with the Internet search engines. Thus, a single web site, which an Internet user may decide is not relevant after accessing the web site home page, may produce dozens or even hundreds of result pages listed in the search results. FIG. 2 shows a typical web search results list. The search term(s) 20 appears on multiple web pages of the xe2x80x9cwww.pinemountainlake.comxe2x80x9d 22 and xe2x80x9cwww.pmlr.comxe2x80x9d 24 web sites. Even with enhanced bandwidth and greater network speeds, wading through hundreds of these xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d to move to the next interesting web site is inefficient, cumbersome and annoying. An Internet user may actually lose patience after viewing dozens of pages of results with redundant information and terminate his search prematurely missing the relevant page buried deep down in the list.
On some occasions an Internet user may actually want to have the results display all pages of a single web site found by the search engine as meeting the Internet user""s Internet search criteria. However, most of the time, the Internet user wants to find a list of relevant and interesting web sites related to his search criteria. If only one of ten found Internet web sites is relevant, it is tedious and unproductive to review and skip over numerous xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d for each of the other nine web sites. For example, the user may determine that the needed detailed information at a web site is only available through a paid subscription service at a price higher than he is willing to pay. In this case, the user would prefer to not see the numerous hits for pages from this site. In another example, a found web site may only serve wholesale customers when the Internet user is only interested in a retail purchase. Once again, the numerous xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d for pages from this web site would not be interesting to this user.
There is another limitation in search engine and browser technology that is an increasing source of frustration to users of today""s search engines. When accessing a single result page, the xe2x80x9cfindxe2x80x9d function of the browser will only display items on that single page matching the find criteria. Thus, once the Internet user has arrived at a list of potentially interesting and relevant web sites, it may be difficult, especially if the web site is robust with many pages, to find the particular page or pages containing the desired information. Using the page by page results list from the search engine can be equally frustrating in that the orientation and navigational information needed by the Internet user may not be evident by jumping to a single page within the web site structure.
What is needed is a search engine that can reduce the number of hits listed for a search. For example, a search engine could be directed to return first the home page of each web site that contains one or more pages meeting the Internet users search criteria. The user should then be able to quickly locate the relevant pages of each of the individually listed web sites. This will dramatically reduce the number of result xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d listed on the results list produced by a web search engine. Since many search requests produce multiple web page references for a single web site, tens or even hundreds of web page references may be redundant from the user""s perspective and therefore can be eliminated from the results.
The present invention provides a method and system for listing network search results. The network has a plurality of sites. Each site has a plurality of pages. The method and system comprise searching the network based on a search term and saving original results from the search and modifying the results of the search wherein at least one of the plurality of pages of a site containing the search term is excluded from reference in the search results and a reference to the home page of the site is included in the search results.
Through the use of a method and system in accordance with the present invention, the number of result hits listed on the results list produced by a web search engine will be dramatically reduced. Tens or hundreds of result pages are potentially eliminated. A user will also be able to quickly locate web pages, within each of the individually listed web sites, that contain the search term(s). As a result, a user within a network system such as the Internet is no longer burdened with having to review page after page of irrelevant information related to his/her searches, where the information is duplicative or undesirable because of its relation to a web site that is of no interest to the user.